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Calling All Stage Managers!


ChicaAnnette

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I am a college student who is looking for a very impressive SM to interview for a paper. Stage Management is where I see myself in the near future and I would like to take the time to ask questions about my future career. The deadline is November 15th. You may contact me at geena.edmonds@hotmail.com

Thanks! :)

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Bit Harsh Adam? Let's be honest, she's going to get a lot more response by asking strangers. Maybe she has asked locally and run out of ideas? I'd have thought asking a public forum, and a different country one at that will prove interesting. I actually contacted here to check she realised were were UK centred, and she did. I'd suspect quite a few people may well have contacted her. We get plenty of poor requests, and this seems quite straightforward - contact her if interested, or don't if not. Any response is better than no response.

 

She's keen to get a dialogue going, rather than just post a questionnaire on survey monkey.

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Adam,

 

The SM in my city is out of town running another show. His assistant is also just as busy. I think my post was a great idea as apposed to begging the next extremely busy SM. If anybody has the time to participate then they will contact me. But thanks for the input.

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Slightly Off Topic - but there was a good piece in "The Stage" this week from Barabara Eifler.

 

 

The Stage Feature

 

 

Just in case anyone struggles, I have also copied it here.

 

 

Test your mettle – become a stage manager. Putting on a show and ensuring it happens on the advertised day, at the advertised time can be very pressurised, juggling and prioritising demands. Things can’t be put off, either – if stage managers don’t give that “go”, ultimately nothing will happen, and it’s no good saying “I’ll have dinner and then preset the stage” because, inexorably, time moves on and the auditorium has to be opened, whether you’ve had your dinner or not.

 

Life outside a theatre, by comparison, is pifflingly easy. Deadlines? Oh, we’ve missed one, shall we adjust it to next Thursday then? I couldn’t quite get this done this week, I’ll do it next week, except I’m on holiday, and then on a training course, so maybe the week after next.

 

I can see The Stage’s mailbag swelling as I write – no, I’m not saying nobody outside the live arts knows how to get anything done, or done on time. But often ‘deadline’ is a misnomer since things, realistically, could be done at a later stage: no tickets have been sold to hundreds of people for 7.30pm tonight.

 

Stage managing also constantly demands you step outside your comfort zone – even on a long contract, each live show is different and, well, live, so unpredictable. Can you cope with the pressure of taking decisions rapidly on your own, of constantly adjusting to a shifting set of situations? What will you be like in a crisis, if a piece of set collapses or the fire alarm goes off? Will you be able to take action or will you be mired in indecision, a rabbit caught in headlights? If you’re a successful stage manager you know you can handle an emergency, but will you ever find out what you’re really made of if you’re not?

 

It’s my theory that that is why people climb Machu Picchu or go backpacking in Afghanistan – to push themselves to the limit and see what comes out. Instead, they could simply get together with their mates at home and put on a show in a day – it would sort the wheat from the chaff in no time at all. Come to think of it, do this before you go backpacking with friends, to make sure they’re the right people to set off with.

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